Doctors from the North went on strike for higher qualifications and salaries

Doctors from the Northern Regional Health Authority launched a two-day strike this Wednesday, organized by the Independent Union of Physicians (SIM), demanding the government integrate the entire medical class into a single civil service payroll.

Doctors will be paralyzed from midnight to midnight Thursday, according to SIM.

Speaking to the Lusa news agency, regional secretary of SIM Norte, Hugo Cadaves, said talks with the government “did not produce results.”

“Expired [em 30 de junho] we were faced with the need to resort to the hardest form of struggle, that is, to strike, which we do not like, which we do not want to do, but we were forced to do this as a way of demonstrating our discontent,” he stressed.

According to Hugo Cadaves, doctors working in the National Health Service (SNS) believe that “working conditions and pay conditions are unattractive.”

“This is what led to the unprecedented departure of doctors from the SNS. (…) In 2021 and 2022 alone, more than 2,000 doctors left the SNS. This is the main motivation for this strike,” he stressed.

The union leader demanded that “there should be concrete and objective proposals in the negotiations (…) and not a 1.6% pay increase when inflation was 7% last year, when doctors lost 20% of their purchasing power in the last 10 years”. when in the civil service in all professional groups there was an increase in average monthly earnings, and for doctors (…) a decrease.

“All of this leads (…) to unprecedented situations of planned closure of emergency services due to a lack of doctors, (…) because doctors leave the SNA, they are unhappy with what is happening in the SNA, and then there is no possibility with the presence of doctors who are on staff at hospitals and rely on physicians providing services in the workplace to be able to have a full scale of emergency care,” he said.

The union is demanding that the Treasury and Health Ministries submit “a proposal for a wage system that restores career losses from the inflationary erosion of the past decade and that places the entire medical profession, including interns, with honor and justice.” in the unified table of civil service remuneration.

The strike, which began this Wednesday at 00:00, covers 12 hospitals and 11 groups of medical centers (ACES), while guaranteeing a minimum amount of services.

According to SIM, the stoppage will affect the University Hospital Center of São João (Porto), the Local Medical Unit (ULS) of Matosinhos (Porto), the Hospital Center (CH) of Povoa de Varzim/Vila do Conde (Porto). , CH do Tâmega e Sousa (Porto), HC in Medio Avenue, Local Health Office (ULS) in Alto Minho (Viana do Castelo), HC in Tras us Montes and Alto Douro (Vila Real) , ULS in Nordest (Braganca), National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the North, Hospital of the Armed Forces (Porto), Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation (Porto) and Unit for Intervention in Addictive Behavior and Addictions (Porto).

Also ACES Alto Tras us Montes – Alto Tamega and Barroso, Douro I – Maran and Douro Norte, Douro II – Douro Sul, Grande Porto I – Santo Tirso/Trofa, Grande Porto III – Maya/Valongo, Grande Porto IV – Povoa do Varzim/Vila do Conde, Grande Porto VI – Porto Oriental, Tamega I – Baixo Tamega, Tamega II – Vale do Sousa Sul and Tamega III – Vale do Sousa Norte will be affected.

ARS Norte is planning another strike on 20 and 21 September.